Four people, including a traffic officer, were arrested during a takedown operation on Thursday for alleged corrupt activities taking place at the BCM Traffic Department in Qonce, formerly known as King William’s Town.
A Multidisciplinary Task Team, which comprised the
South African Police Service, Anti-Corruption Task Team and the Intelligence and Road
Traffic Management Centre, conducted the operation at about 16:00 on March 24 after investigating the alleged corrupt activities in an undercover capacity for almost a year.
Provincial police spokesperson, Brig. Tembinkosi Kinana, said that the operation followed when the Anti-Corruption office
received complaints of corrupt activities taking place at this specific traffic department, whereby learners and driver’s licence examiners were
alleged to be working with a middle man who is a driving school instructor.
The
middleman would allegedly identify clients and
offer them assistance in terms of obtaining a learner’s licence without having
to complete the test. It is further alleged that this process would be completed by the examiner, who is a traffic
officer and the client is then declared competent and subsequently issued with a learner’s licence.
“An application for an undercover operation to be conducted
was made in August 2021. It was then observed that a client agent had managed
to obtain the learner’s [licence] by paying a gratification of R1500 to the driving
school instructor. After entering the
exam room, the client agent was instructed by the examiner not to write anything
in the paper, but to hand in an empty
script with only personal details and the test was completed by the traffic officer. The client was then
declared competent and later received the learner’s licence,” Kinana explained.
He added that on Thursday, driving school instructor, Luvuyo Stamper (30) and the examiner, traffic officer, Lthando Alex Jaza (51) were arrested on charges relating to
corruption. They appeared in the Qonce Magistrates Court yesterday, March 25.
In a separate incident, two of the four suspects, a licencing clerk and her male co-accused, are alleged to have taken advantage of desperate members of the public who were
struggling to obtain Roadworthy Test Certificates. The licencing clerk would allegedly issue the roadworthy certificates even though the vehicle
concerned was not there physically.
“According to the report, she would charge each vehicle
according to its capacity and would do this with assistance from the examiner
of her choice to issue roadworthy certificates. During the undercover investigation, it was discovered on
the E Natis System that some of the vehicles for which the roadworthy
certificates were sought, were roadworthy but reported as having been
demolished,” Kinana said.
“Consequently, both suspects were arrested by the Anti-Corruption
and Intelligence office, after a discovery was made that they were involved in fraudulent and corrupt activities. The investigation started in February
2021,” he added.
The two suspects appeared in the Qonce Magistrates Court yesterday. They are Mpumelelo Morris
Baneti (50) and Nomasomi Abegail Bosman (58). The court granted a bail of R500 each to all the suspects and they are
expected to return to court on May 10 and May 25, 2022, respectively.
Provincial Police Commissioner, Lt. Gen. Nomthetheleli Mene, commended the Anti-Corruption Task Team and Crime
Intelligence for their sterling work.
“Corruption is like cancer in the
bone marrow, therefore it must be nipped in the bud to prevent its spread. No
public servant associated with fraud and corruption must escape justice.”
